


Kaleidoscope

by dontstraytoofar



Category: Archie Comics, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: A little angst, F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 19:49:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9841346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontstraytoofar/pseuds/dontstraytoofar
Summary: “Sooo that’s it? No“Oh my god Ronnie! You’re leaving Riverdale forever and I have no idea what to do!?”And Betty is standing under neon lights. Hair alight, green eyes almost like diamonds as a tear cradles softly against her cheek. Veronica’s never seen anything so beautiful in her entire life.It kinda makes saying goodbye like a knife pressed into her heart. Or a machete.Either way, it fuckinghurts.





	

**Author's Note:**

> PS. A little San Junipero reference inside :) 
> 
> Betty’s texts: _italicised_
> 
> Veronica’s texts: bold and italicised
> 
> This is a happy story, no angst (a tiny bit) but i literally can’t write these two in sad endings. I tried. So hard. Nadda. Not happening. So enjoy these happy cheerleader girlfriends. 
> 
> pps. dont ask me how her dad got out of jail in this; its a plot device and im gay and just want these two to ditch archie and kiss again tbh 
> 
> all mistakes are mine x enjoy!

 

-

 

 

 

 

It happens on a Tuesday.

Sure, Veronica can list at least like, seven different horrible things that have happened to her on, weirdly, a _Tuesday._ (That one weird kid who started stalking her for five months in junior year. The bee incident. Falling into a puddle of mud on her first date. Did she mention the bee thing?)

But sitting in the booth of Pop’s, currently about to down a chocolate milkshake in nervousness, is easily sitting at number one of “Worst Tuesday Incidents” of Veronica’s life.

Then her phone dings. And she chokes on her straw.

_be there in five! order a burger too x im starved_

So Veronica does. Hand shaking as she raises it for a waitress.

Because everything is going to shit and nothing makes sense and she’s _about to fucking tell her bestfriend that oh, did you know my father’s back? And we’re moving? Thousands of miles away from you?_ Veronica closes her eyes, she damns her father to hell, and her eyes flicker up as the bell to Pop’s rings as another customer walks through.

Here’s the thing about Betty Cooper that took Veronica exactly four days of knowing her to understand.

She has this way with natural sunlight that can make Veronica’s breath stop, start, and her heart forget how to beat in a steady rhythm. As if the sun decided to shine out of her gaze and smile and the stars came along and planted themselves in Betty’s eyes. Like an entire _universe_ sat inside of her and Veronica is just, Pluto or something.

Yet as Betty smiles in finding Veronica in her booth from across the way, hair tied up in that stupid goddamn adorable pony tail, Veronica can say she has always prided herself on an icy demeanor; a certified _badass._

When Betty smiles though? She kinda melts.

 “Hey! Sorry I’m late,” And Betty slides into the seat opposite, smile widening as Veronica smiles back. “Kinda tied up in reporter business with Jughead”

Betty leans over the table on her arms, shoulders moving in that excited way and _god fucking damn it. Fuck her dad to hell because_ **_this_ ** _is what she’s leaving?_

Veronica opts to just bite her lip to contain her wince at her thoughts, and listens to Betty’s “So, what’s up?” as the tiny universe she possesses in her gaze almost sends Veronica spinning.

She kinda fucks up; she lets words slip out that crush Betty’s excited smile in 3 seconds flat because wow….she’s kinda in love with the brightest most colossal sun that’s ever existed that sits across from her.

 “We need to talk”

 “About…?”

Veronica takes a breath, and Betty across from her sips patiently on Veronica’s milkshake in waiting.

 “Us”

 “Oh”

The neon lights on the window flicker, and if Veronica wasn’t mistaken, she sees a brief flash of panic in Betty’s eyes. But it’s gone in half the time, Betty frowning slightly as she stirs the straw in the milkshake. And Veronica is on bated breath, heart racing, knee bouncing up and down and it isn’t until she sees the spoon on the booth table shake as if an earthquake hit does she hear Betty’s voice.

 “Ronnie? You’re doing the leg thing,”

She snaps out of it, and all she sees is Betty’s worried gaze, how she has reached across the table and taken Veronica’s hand in hers. Squeezing once, smiling slightly in reassurance. “Hey, whatever it is? I’m here. Always”

It kinda makes that cloud of worry and sadness dissipate for a moment, and Veronica smiles back, squeezing Betty’s hand and closing her eyes because what did she do to deserve Betty Cooper?

(She shouldn’t kiss her now, right? Life altering moment...sad confession…)

It must be the universe, she thinks, throwing an angel at her that gives her gold and happiness and love when all she can give back is like, the price equivalent to a half eaten snickers bar and the lint in her pocket.

Veronica lets a tear fall (when did she start crying?) and before Betty notices, her mouth open and eyebrows furrowed, Veronica stands quickly up. Knee bumping the table and sending straws to the floor. She wipes at the tear; almost sprints from Bettys worried look, saying: “Wow you deserve so much better” that is said so softly Betty strains to hear it.

 “Veronica? Wait-”

She holds to the strap of her bag until her knuckles are white. She doesn’t look back to Betty.  

How could she leave if she did?

 

 

 

 

-

 

Betty, of course, follows.

And it’s raining outside, pouring droplets of water so thick both girls are immediately drenched as they stop together in the middle of the car park. And it’s Veronica, staring up to the sky with her arms around herself and mascara down her cheeks that has Betty almost _break_ for her. Standing silently. Waiting for Veronica to speak over the loud rain, the thunder that crackles to life in the sky.

 “I’m leaving”

Betty’s lungs constrict, she feels the earth shift under her feet. “What?”

A beat passes, Veronica turns around, sweeping her arms outward in a bitter gesture; laughing with tears in her eyes that drop to her chin. Betty can’t tell if it’s the rain, or if Veronica has opened herself; to never cease pouring.

 “I’m fucking leaving!”

It’s silent, nothing but rain.

Betty’s throat catches (it’s as if the world ceases to spin)

 “I-I’m leaving R-Riverdale and Archie and Jughead and, _Jesus,_ y-you!-”

Veronica’s breaths start to tremble, her words catching on each of her sobs and her chest _heaves_ with the weight. It’s not like her, to trip and stumble over words, to forget her last name and anything before Betty.

Yet Betty darts to her, moving to comfort Veronica so softly, as if she held clouds in her touch. Hushing. Placing her hands on either side of her head; moving a damp lock from her eyes. Smiling as if nothing else but Veronica existed.

 “Hey, hey shhh. It’s okay. I’m here”

Veronica buries her face into Betty’s neck, the rain becoming a part of them as Betty takes her in her arms. Soft words to her temple, her lips pressed against the side of her head. And it takes all of her strength not to silence Veronica’s words with a kiss; the words said against her neck as she cries.

 “I”m sorry, I’m so _fucking_ sorry”

She feels the other girl's’ hands clutching at her back, her cardigan scrunched up in Veronica’s fists.

(God, does she know how much Betty loves her?)

 “We’ll work it out. We always do”

Veronica just buries deeper, and tries to remember how Betty smells of lemongrass and spring. How she feels like love.

 

 

 

 

-

 

Betty drives them to her house, Veronica can only focus on the street lights flashing past her vision.

It’s past curfew, Veronica goes to protest that _No really, it’s fine. Just drop me at mine_ but Betty rolls her eyes, pointedly looks to Veronica and shakes her head. _Your house is an extra twenty minutes and we’re both drenched, V._

She leaves it at that, Betty’s got a point.

They sneak in through the back, no sign of Alice, and Veronica can hear Betty’s relieved sigh as if a weight had dropped from her shoulders.

 “I’ll get some towels. Hot cocoa?”

Veronica nods, shivers, and walks up the steps to Betty’s room -- careful to take her heels off beforehand so no noise follows her. She shakes the drenched pair in her hands to Betty, and all Betty can do is send a thankful smile her way.

When she makes it to Betty’s room, the moonlight filtering in through her window, it’s almost as if her body shuts down. Standing silently in the doorway, heels dangling from her fingertips. It’s as if her legs cease to remember how to _walk._ God, how can she get out of this? How can she begin to possibly explain that _Oh Betty, first thing I’m in love with you, probably for months now and I don’t know how to explain it but-_

 “Your cocoa madam”

She’s _there._ Dimpled smile, wet hair, holding out a steaming mug to Veronica with two towels over her shoulder. How long had she been standing here?

Veronica smiles, taking it and letting her hands envelope the mug. It’s either the hot chocolate or Betty’s smile that alights her chest up with this _warmth._ A content feeling that buries itself in Veronica’s senses.

She guesses it’s Betty, it’s _always_ Betty.

It takes an hour for Veronica to talk about it.

Half an hour is spent with both girls curled up in blankets and towels, Betty’s head resting softly on Veronica’s shoulder. Neither speak much, just their quiet breaths with their chests moving in sync. The other half is Veronica playing with Betty’s patient fingers, waiting for the other girl to speak as she lets Veronica nervously wonder, think, or sort through her words.

So Betty enjoys the time being close to her, she thinks about _“I’m leaving”_ and the kiss that felt so long ago and how falling in love with Veronica Lodge is a lot like 3 am milkshakes at Pop’s and rollercoasters at Sunday fairs.

(Betty wonders when the world is ever going to give her a break in relation to love)

 “Ever since moving here,” Veronica’s voice hits Betty like a wave, washing her breaths from her chest. She watches, from her spot on Veronica’s shoulder, how she takes a breath, closes her eyes; and smiles that blinding smile that reminds Betty of sunshine.

 “God, ever since being in Riverdale you’ve been a total fucking inconvenience”

Veronica sends a smirk Betty’s way, and she can’t help but fall into laughter into Veronica’s neck. Giggling as she feels their chests hum. What ‘just’ God could take this away from them?

Betty’s laughs dissolve, and she can feel how Veronica breathes. Steady. Soft. Her heart is trembling. And she looks to the other girl, catching Veronica already staring back. “Why?”

Veronica wipes a tear that trails a path down to her chin, and turns her head. Mumbling against the side of Betty’s head; eyes squeezed shut. “Because I told myself I was _done._ That I would find a cute boy and make my dad happy and quiet. Then _you_ came along,” Betty closes her eyes, is this what it feels like to break? Like Polly did?

 “With your stupid preppy smile and compassion and dumb pony tail” Veronica flicks said hair style, making Betty roll her eyes; but her chest is alight. Something that was never there before Veronica.

 “So, Boston huh?”

Veronica sighs, still playing with blonde locks. “Yeah”

 “No”

The abrupt word makes Veronica raise an eyebrow, chuckling confusedly. “Uh say what now?”

But Betty is already up from Veronica’s shoulder, leaning on one hand with a deep frown; as if the planets aligned and the stars screamed at her that _this_ isn’t how Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodges story ends. She shakes her head, a slow smile gracing her lips. Veronica just raises her eyebrow higher.

 “I _mean_ no; fuck that”

Veronica laughs, delighted in Other Betty whose eyes flash as she’s thinking. “Damn, I like this Betty”  

Betty rolls her eyes; taking Veronica’s hand in hers, effectively shutting her up. “I’m so over the universe kicking me in the teeth and expecting me to not go to the dentist-”

 “Weird euphemism, but I can roll with it”

 “You’re _not_ leaving. We’ll figure this out. And I’m kissing you now”

 “Wait wha-”

There are approximately now three things in Veronica’s life that have set her heart on fire.

 

  1. When she literally, in fourth grade, set her shirt alight playing with her father's cigarette lighter
  2. When her mum took her on a surprise trip to Italy
  3. Betty Cooper kissing her



 

And she kisses back, losing herself, to how Betty runs her fingers through her hair; how their bodies instinctively rise to meet the other. How Betty says against her lips fervently;  “You’re not _leaving_. You’re my goddamn girlfriend and-” which ends in Betty pulling back with a gasp, lipstick smeared, watching Veronica blink owlishly.

 “Wait- no. That was creepy. And assuming of me. Not that I don’t want to be your girlfriend it’s just-”

 “Betty”

 “Yeah?”

 “Shut up”

And Veronica kisses her again, she forgets about Boston, and instead; focuses on how Betty’s giggle is like wind chimes, beating against sun kissed waves.

Veronica envisions a small beach cottage when she hears it. A horizon stretched out into infinity, Betty by her side.

 

 

 

 

-

 

_i think jughead likes me??_

 

**_baby. its 2 am_ **

 

_oh!!! sorry <3 _

 

_it’s just he asked me while we were writing for the school newspaper if i wanted to go get lunch with him???_

 

_…..he wrote it on the typewriter_

 

**_damn need me a freak like that_**

****

_r o n n i e this is serious_

****

**_ok ok he knows we’re together dork, he probs just wants another friend so he isnt_ **

****

**_ya know_ **

****

_what????_

****

**_pining after archie 24/7_ **

****

_wait kevin was right?_

****

**_uh huh_ **

****

_so he was right abt us too like 6 months ago??_

****

**_sigh, i know_ **

****

**_it’s hard to admit his gaydar is better than yours_ **

****

_:/_

****

**_you’re so cute when ur disgruntled_ **

****

_im not disgruntled!!!_

****

**_awww baby!! u have such a cute pout :)_ **

****

_I hate you_

****

**_i love you too_ **

****

**_now i have a chem test in 8 hours babe. need my beauty sleep_ **

****

_ur too beautiful to need beauty sleep <3 _

****

_we still on for wednesday night?_

****

**_wouldn’t miss it Betts xx_ **

****

-

 **_  
  
_**

Veronica convinces her father “ _Two more months here. Then I’ll catch a plane home with you and mum and you’ll never hear about Riverdale again”_

She can almost hear her dad’s chest puff through the phone; a heavy gruff “ _Alright then”_ crackles through the phone. She smiles; thanks her father’s stupidity sometimes, and jumps up and down in the middle of Betty’s bed room.

 “Well?”

Her girlfriend's voice filters through Veronica’s excited grin, Betty’s mouth although smiling; also showing her nervousness. How she pulls on her bottom lip with her teeth. Veronica opts to jump on the bed, crawling up to her with a cat like smile, and silencing her worries with a kiss. When she pulls back, Betty is shyly smiling, a small blush to her cheeks.

 “Two months babe. Think we can find an apartment in that time?”

 “Wait _what?”_

Veronica looks innocently back, to Betty’s shocked face and open mouth. Raising an eyebrow to Betty and saying as if it’s obvious: “What? You really think I was going back to Boston?”

Betty then stutters, at a loss for words at Veronica’s teasing grin. “I-I just thought, ya know. I prepared for the worst” She frowns after, as if lost in the thought of Riverdale without her Veronica. It’s like, Earth without it’s Sun; Romeo without Juliet. Ice without cream.

Veronica silences her worries with a kiss; long, passionate, deep. It steals the very breath from Betty’s lungs. And when she pulls back, Betty can say she saw galaxies in Veronica’s eyes. 

 “Let’s get one thing straight here Betts. Riverdale has one thing Boston doesn’t. _You._ As far as I’m concerned; that’s all the criteria I need”

Betty kisses her so hard they fall back into the sheets; Spring blows into their open windows, and she says “I love you so much” against Veronica’s lips it’s as if the season had never existed before the two. As if it was made for _them._

Veronica smiles into the kiss, mumbling the same words back as she lets her legs wrap around Betty’s waist.

Life is _good._

**  
  
  
**

 

 

-

**  
  
  
**

Riverdale, with its torn down drive in and diner that’s been opened since the 1950’s, isn’t the first place one thinks when looking for shared living spaces. It’s a town, as Veronica puts it: “So goddamn lost in the past it may as well be the Tardis”

Betty just watches her girlfriend stress pace and wear grooves into her floor with an eyeroll.

So she decides to grab Veronica’s hand from where she sits on her bed, and pulls her in between her legs. And Betty looks up with an amused smile, the soft touch and gesture only bringing a stressful frown from Veronica; yet the other girl still melts into the hold. Feeling Betty’s hands rest softly at her waist.

 “ _Relax,_ we’ll find a way”

 “How can you be so chill and adorable at the same time?”

Betty shakes her head with a laugh, and Veronica’s pout spread across her face as she lets the countless pages of _Riverdale Retail_ fall to her bedroom floor. “I could always stay with you?”

Betty pointedly looks to Veronica, and the other girls’ shoulders deflate. Because _“Uh, my mother still exists??”_ was painted across Betty’s stare so vibrantly Veronica would have had to be blind not to see it.

 “Can’t she be like, a supporting mother for two seconds?”

Betty sighs, letting her forehead rest lightly against Veronica’s stomach as she closes her eyes. “Babe I _wish._ But that’s equivalent to asking Archie to smash his guitar against a wall”

Veronica groans, and although the time doesn’t call for it and although Betty is three seconds away from crying; she can’t help but smile at how it vibrates to Veronica’s stomach -- how she can hear the dull _lub dub_ of Veronica’s heartbeat that travels down her chest.

 “I could always- _oh my god”_

Betty looks up with a start, her eyes blinking after being almost lulled to sleep against Veronica’s stomach. It could make her embarrassed, but she’s learnt to accept that the way she’s fallen for Veronica leaves no room for _embarrassment_ of all things.

 “What?”

And Veronica has this _look_ in her eyes when she gazes down to Betty, eyes alight and biting her bottom lip to contain her smile. She tackles Betty to the bed and covers her face in never ending kisses, making Betty herself smile and say through her laughter: “Okay okay! As much as I love-” Veronica kisses her on the lips, and makes her way back to her nose, cheeks and eyes as Betty giggles at the kisses that feel like smiles pressed against her skin. “- the attention. What’s going on!?”

Veronica pulls back, bouncing while straddling Betty’s hips, and her smile is so blinding Betty’s sure she just witnessed a supernova. Or maybe the Big Bang. The Death Star's’ explosion?

 “The apartment me and my mum are currently staying at,”

Betty raises an eyebrow, poking her head out slightly and gesturing to _oh my god get the fuck on with it._

She guesses Veronica can read her mind.

 “My dad. When I was fourteen he gave it away. To _me._ As inheritance! _God,_ why did it take me an entire week to realise this? We’re okay! Betty, baby, we’re _okay”_

It takes a second for Betty to be able to breathe.

Because Jesus, it’s been in her head for _months_ that Veronica was moving and she’d be apart from her touch and kiss and hands and- how did Betty think she’d cope? How did she think she could be _fine_ with that, with seeing Veronica scarcely, to nearly never _at all_.

She feels Veronica’s hands on her cheeks, she can see her worried frown through the tears that suddenly gather at the corner of her vision. And Veronica smiles a worried smile, a tear from Betty’s eye suddenly catching on her thumb that rests on her cheek bone.

 “Betts? Hey, you okay? Honestly I expected more jumping but tears I can take?”

Betty laughs wetly, a sob catching her throat as Veronica teasingly smiles. She pushes slightly on her girlfriend's shoulder, saying “Shut up” through relieved tears and her heart threatening to beat out of her chest.

Yet Veronica triumphantly smiles, leaning down to kiss Betty. Softly. Sweetly. _There._

 “You love me”

Betty sighs into the kiss, whispering.

 “Way too much”

(Veronica Lodge will be too loud for people; too soft, too hard, too quiet, too everything _._ But she is _perfect_ for the girl who loves her -- Betty Cooper.

Or the short story of how the girl next door who smiled like sunshine, fell in love with the girl from Boston; one who danced like the stars underneath the moon's gaze)

****


End file.
